Where are the kids from these iconic viral YouTube videos now?

Social media stars come and go – but it’s the stars of viral videos, most of whom didn’t expect to be cast into a bright and intense limelight in the first place, that well and truly disappear off the face of the earth. It’s like once the internet has had its fun for a week or two, making them into a near godlike figure of meme glory, these people are instantly forgotten and never heard from again. Until now, that is.

So, from the “Apparently” kid to the child that brought us a plethora of kazoo-related meme-ry that still lives on to this day, here’s what the child heroes from some of the most iconic YouTube videos are up to now.

“Apparently” kid

The “Apparently” kid is the first of many children who were put on a pedestal as part of the evil Ellen™ corporation’s master plan of spreading love, positivity, and friendliness around the world.

Whilst in recent months that has been proven to be a load of rubbish (toxic work environment, anyone?), one thing we can be sure of is that this video went HUGELY viral.

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A post shared by 💚💙POKI💙💚 (@pokisslimebash)

Noah Ritter, the star of the viral video that has been viewed over 50 million times, is now 12 years old – and whilst you might imagine him to have grown a significant amount since 2014 – he doesn’t appear to have done, like, at all:

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Following his viral success, he appeared on a series called Toy Box where he reviewed toys – and that’s basically it. He’s still a kid who seems to be doing normal kid things, and that’s as much as we can reliably report at this point. Apparently.

Sophia Grace and Rosie

Sophia Grace and her best mate Rosie went crazy viral for their cover of Super Bass by Nicki Minaj, and what followed can only be described as a frenzy. There was a performance with One Direction, an appearance on Ellen (obviously), and a whole heap more insanely viral singing videos to come for the duo.

Sophia Grace went on to continue with the singing and YouTube videos, appearing in the above track with a rapper called Sav. Many were quite surprised to see her transform into a D-Squared/Moncler-clad singing feature on a grime track, and it’s safe to say that the like-to-dislike ratio may well reflect this.

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A post shared by Rosie McClelland (@rosiergm)

Rosie also makes music, releasing her latest track Throw It Away in April of this year, but the best thing about all this? They both seem to remain the best of friends.

I like turtles

Johnathan had just got an “awesome face paint job” when he was asked by a reporter what he thought of it. Whilst he could easily have said he was having a great time at the carnival, or that he thought the makeup artist did a cracking job, zombie boy instead chose to mutter the immortal phrase that we all know and love: “I like turtles.”

And a legend was born. Whilst he almost throws the presenter off what she was going to say next, he keeps that same placid facial expression throughout the 17-second clip.

The little Turtle-loving legend has since been unveiled as Johnathan Ware, a 13-year-old kid who revealed that he was simply nervous and had just seen a turtle display before being interviewed. So, that explains that.

David after dentist

This was one of the OG YouTube viral videos from yesteryear, back when footage of someone being a bit silly post-tooth surgery would get a shedload of views.

David DeVore now attends the University of Florida – and thankfully his teeth appear to be very much ordinary.

Have you ever…

This 1999 clip went viral on YouTube for just how nonsensical the boy came across when trying to recite a quote, from what some have speculated is the animated film Hercules. As you can see, he starts off strong before going on a complete tangent that makes absolutely ZERO sense.

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Unfortunately, nobody has come forward as the star of this video. It has been speculated that a young man that included the quote in his yearbook could well be the child, but there has been no proper confirmation of this. I give it two months before he comes forward and announces that he’s selling the video as part of an NFT.

You on kazoo!

And finally, we come to the most recent example of meme stardom provided by none other than the kid from You on Kazoo! How many memes can you get from one short film? Plenty, it seems, as there was a brief period on the internet where you couldn’t escape the variety of different catchphrases that this child used.

The kazoo enthusiast kid is former child actor (and current adult actor) Brett Ambler, who tells us in his Twitter bio that he also writes songs. Whether this is a tongue-in-cheek reference to his kazoo playing past we’re not sure, but his IMDb page also reveals that he was in a number of other 90s childrens’ films.

He currently offers cameo-style shoutout videos – and all you have to do is reply to the above tweet! And probably pay money.

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